


When the Day Met the Night

by Anthemyst



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Sedoretu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-05
Packaged: 2019-04-18 15:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14215674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anthemyst/pseuds/Anthemyst
Summary: A relationship is all about balance. Two men and two women, two Morning and two Evening. All four parties, then, should come together organically. But everyone knows that that only really happens in stories. The real world is less perfect, less tidy. Everyone understands that it’s not unnatural for a Morning girl to find her Evening boy first, and for the two of them to seek out an Evening girl and a Morning boy afterwards. Or maybe a Morning girl finds her Evening girl first-it’s less common, but just as acceptable.A Morning girl choosing her Morning boy first, though? That makes people uncomfortable.





	When the Day Met the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clairelutra (exosolarmoon)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/gifts).



A relationship is all about balance. Two men and two women, two Morning and two Evening. All four parties, then, should come together organically. But everyone knows that that only really happens in stories. The real world is less perfect, less tidy. Everyone understands that it’s not unnatural for a Morning girl to find her Evening boy first, and for the two of them to seek out an Evening girl and a Morning boy afterwards. Or maybe a Morning girl finds her Evening girl first-it’s less common, but just as acceptable.

A Morning girl choosing her Morning boy first, though? That makes people uncomfortable.

_It’s not like that_ , Marinette and Adrien say over and over. They’ve stopped caring if anyone believes them. They know what they are to each other.

_People get the wrong idea so easily_ , Sabine warns her daughter, before insisting Marinette at least bring Alya or Nino with her if she’s going to go out with Adrien.

_The platonic sides of a sedoretu are just as important as the romantic ones_ , Marinette says, and Adrien’s never agreed with anyone so much in his life. He’s seen first hand, after all, the truth of her words. His parents’ marriage might have survived the death of his otherfather, almost two decades ago, but it didn’t survive the disappearance of his mother, not really. What was once a family is now just three broken individuals existing under the same roof. Two Evening adults that used to be parents and a Morning child that will never, never be enough sunlight for them.

Adrien knows he should start with an Evening partner, but deep down he doesn’t really believe he’ll ever find one, much less two, that will give him what he needs. Gabriel and Nathalie never have, after all.

Maybe Adrien doesn’t need romance at all. Maybe the friendships he’s been denied his entire life will be enough. They’re already so much more than he ever dared hope for.

 

* * *

 

Kagami Tsurugi is the most quintessentially Evening person Adrien Agreste has ever met, but for the longest time he doesn’t notice. He doesn’t notice her rationality, her precision, he doesn’t see the way she is as flawless and as cold and as hard as a diamond. All he sees at first is himself. He sees his own pain reflected back at him in her eyes, and it’s too much to bear. It’s everything he never expected to find.

_You should meet my friend Marinette_ , is the first real thing he manages to say to her. _You’d really like her_ , he says, and prays that it’s true.

 

* * *

 

“I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

Kagami pauses, head tilted, and considers Marinette for a moment before taking off her fencing mask. “Why?” she asks, as though she has no idea what Marinette could possibly be talking about.

“I… I got you akumatized,” Marinette says, her face turning red.

Kagami raises a single eyebrow impossibly high. “Are you Hawkmoth?” she asks, like it’s an ordinary question.

“What? Of course not!”

“Then you didn’t akumatize me,” Kagami says. She picks up her helmet again and turns to go, the matter settled in her eyes.

“But I-you got the point, but I said Adrien-“

“You had no business calling that point,” Kagami says, and Marinette doesn’t say that she had no business answering any questions at all, that when she watches Kagami in motion it becomes difficult to remember which way is up. “You were a complete amateur. D’Argencourt shouldn’t have dragged you into it, but he was more interested in humiliating an upstart than in fairness. That is not your fault.” Marinette’s mouth is hanging open now. After a moment Kagami reaches for her and, somewhat awkwardly, places a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I can handle D’Argencourt’s ego. You can tell Adrien we’re fine.”

Marinette blinks. “Adrien?”

“Didn’t he send you? He speaks of you often during practice. He seems to want us to like one another for some reason.”

“No! I mean, yes, he does, but I came because _I_ want us to like one another.”

Kagami frowns. “Why?”

“Because you’re,” _perfect for us_ , “nice.”

Kagami stiffens. “I am not,” she says, and now she sounds suspicious. “Nobody thinks I’m nice. Adrien’s nice. _You’re_ nice. Not me. ”

“There are different ways to be nice,” Marinette protests. “You’re fair, and you’re considerate, and you listen.”

Now it’s Kagami who is speechless. Marinette waits patiently while Kagami blinks rapidly. “I don’t know why,” Kagami finally whispers, “but I want to believe you.”

Marinette leans forward and kisses Kagami, and for the first time in her life Kagami really believes that there are people in the world who can love her for what she is.

 

* * *

 

For a while, it’s enough. The rest of the world is satisfied, at least. Kagami is Evening and she’s from a highly respectable family, so the whispers about Marinette and Adrien finally stop.

The three of them, however, are not truly balanced. There’s a reason a marriage is four people, a reason people speak of that invisible timer that slowly runs out the longer a couple or threesome fails to complete the sedoretu.

It’s hardest on Adrien, the Morning child starved of light and affection. Marinette and Kagami are so much of what he needs, but they can’t be all of it.

“Adrien, please open the door, please let us in,” Marinette pleads, her palm against the wood of Adrien’s bedroom door.

“I’m sick of it, I’m sick of never being enough for him.”

“Oh Adrien, of course you’re enough for your father-“

“No, he isn’t,” Kagami interrupts, which earns her the coldest death glare she’d ever received from her girlfriend. After a moment, however, the door opens. In the blink of an eye, Adrien grabs Kagami and pulls her inside, shutting the door again before Marinette can react.

“She doesn’t get it,” Adrien says, nodding towards the door.

“Of course not,” Kagami agrees. “Marinette is,” Kagami’s breath hitches ever so slightly, even now she is caught off guard by how much the Morning girl means to her, “incredible, but she can’t understand your relationship with your father. Marinette has lived her entire life with the unconditional love and support of all four of her parents. She doesn’t believe a parent can be anything else.”

Adrien crosses his arms, but nods. “What do I do?”

Kagami sighs. “You let it go.”

“Give up? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“Adrien, we’ve been sheltered for so much of our lives, but we’ve finally been given enough freedom to see what other families are like. You must realize by now that there’s something broken about our parents.”

Adrien goes very still. “I’ll never be enough, then.”

“It’s not our job to be enough for them,” Kagami says harshly, and Adrien flinches. “It’s their job to be enough for us. And they’re not.” After a moment, Adrien nods. The tears he’s been smothering with anger are finally falling, and it doesn’t come naturally to her at all, but Kagami takes Adrien in her arms all the same.

 

* * *

 

In many ways, Luka Couffaine is just as quintessentially Evening as Kagami is, but in the entirely opposite way. Kagami’s Evening is a moonless night, with a darkness so deep it masks the closeness of approaching storm clouds. Luka’s Evening is summer night, calm and full of fireflies, with a heavy warmth and a clear sky and a full moon almost as bright as the sun.

Kagami can validate Adrien’s pain, but Luka can banish it, for a while at least. He can distract Adrien, he can lighten Adrien’s heart.

Kagami watches her girlfriend smile and blush and stammer at the most basic, earnest compliments. She watches her boyfriend light up as he stands at that keyboard onstage. She waits, and waits, and-even though she’s unmatched in the art of waiting for the perfect time to strike-she’s the one who gets impatient and finally invites Luka to dinner.

 

* * *

 

“Two bedrooms, three, or four?”

The real estate agent is clearly disappointed to only be showing half of a sedoretu around today, especially a non-romantic half, but she’s as professional as can be all the same.

“Two,” Luka says, at the same time Kagami says, “Four.” Luka looks at her, surprised.

“I need my own space,” Kagami says, “and so do you. And obviously Adrien and Marinette can’t share a bedroom.”

“I can’t afford to pay a quarter of the rent for a four bedroom apartment in Paris,” Luka says, shoving his hands into his pockets, “and neither can Marinette.”

“Adrien and I can cover the difference.”

“Or I can make my own space in the corner of the living room.”

“You need your own space,” Kagami repeats, “and it’s silly for us to keep pretending Adrien and I don’t have massive trust funds. I love Marinette and Adrien loves you. Let us give you both this.”

Luka shifts uncomfortably, but nods. The agent’s eyes light up as she leads them to an apartment on the first floor of the building. It has a coziness, despite its many rooms, and Kagami and Luka both feel instantly at ease. Luka asks a few cursory questions through the tour, and he’s grinning outright by the time it ends.

“What do you think?” the agent asks. “When it’s love at first sight stop looking, that’s my philosophy.”

“Marinette would kill us if we only looked at one apartment,” Kagami says, but even she is smiling a little.

“Are you sure you don’t want to reschedule for when she and Adrien can be here?” the agent asks yet again. “It’s no trouble. I was looking forward to meeting them, Marinette was so lovely to talk to on the phone.”

Kagami shakes her head. “There’s no point,” she says softly. She looks around, then fixes the agent with a piercing gaze. “Could we have a moment to ourselves?”

“Oh, of course, just come on out when you’re ready for the next showing.” The agent steps out into the hallway. Luka and Kagami stand in the living room in silence for a moment, and then Luka pulls out his cell phone.

“Akuma?” Luka nods. “How are they doing?”

Luka looks up, surprised. “Fine,” he manages to say. “You knew?”

Kagami nods. “For almost four months now,” she says. “You?”

“Only a couple of weeks,” Luka says, a little embarrassed. “Does it get easier? The waiting, the worrying?”

“Not yet.”

“Do they know you know?”

Kagami shakes her head. “They have enough to worry about. I can wait for when they’re ready to tell us.”

Luka sighs. “I guess we’ll be doing a lot of waiting.”

Kagami’s never had the philosophy Adrien and Marinette do about sedoretu. She never worried about her relationship with Luka because she never thought it would matter, not the way her relationships with Adrien and Marinette do. But now she wonders about how much time they’ll spend together, just the two of them. For the first time she worries that they have nothing in common. She nods in agreement.

“It’s a nice apartment to wait in,” Kagami says. “And you’re not a terrible person to wait with, I suppose.”

Luka’s still feeling anxious, but he smiles. “Neither are you,” he says. “And Marinette and Adrien are worth waiting for,” he adds, and Kagami remembers that they do have something in common after all, the most important thing, and it’s enough.


End file.
